National Restaurant Association

Karcher Education Pledge: Carl Karcher Enterprises Inc., the parent company of the Carl's Jr. restaurant chain, has pledged $50,000 to an educational program operated by the National Restaurant Assn. The company will donate $10,000 a year over five years to an endowment fund that develops career training programs for managers. The association's Educational Foundation is trying to raise endowments to $10 million to support the programs.

During his three years heading the National Restaurant Assn. in the 1990s, Herman Cain worked long hours and, with his family living out of town, socialized at Washington-area restaurants with his subordinates from the organization's headquarters. Three women claim Cain's behavior over the years sometimes crossed the line into sexual harassment. Two of them received financial settlements from the association after filing complaints. Another former employee said he saw Cain, after an evening of drinking and socializing, make inappropriate advances toward a young female staff member.

The nation's restaurateurs, under attack by attorneys and consumers for contributing to Americans' growing girth, got a big pep talk Sunday. Former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who emerged from the rubble of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to become "America's Mayor," told the capacity crowd gathered here for the National Restaurant Assn.'s annual conference that "both for the economy and for the morale of the city," it was important for restaurants to bounce back. In the days after Sept.

The nation's restaurateurs, under attack by attorneys and consumers for contributing to Americans' growing girth, got a big pep talk Sunday. Former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who emerged from the rubble of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to become "America's Mayor," told the capacity crowd gathered here for the National Restaurant Assn.'s annual conference that "both for the economy and for the morale of the city," it was important for restaurants to bounce back. In the days after Sept.

During his three years heading the National Restaurant Assn. in the 1990s, Herman Cain worked long hours and, with his family living out of town, socialized at Washington-area restaurants with his subordinates from the organization's headquarters. Three women claim Cain's behavior over the years sometimes crossed the line into sexual harassment. Two of them received financial settlements from the association after filing complaints. Another former employee said he saw Cain, after an evening of drinking and socializing, make inappropriate advances toward a young female staff member.

Herman Cain, a conservative radio host and former business executive, became the latest Republican to officially enter the 2012 presidential campaign on Saturday. Making a play for the "tea party" vote, Cain said at his Atlanta kick-off that America needs a new generation of "defending fathers" to protect the Constitution. "We can take this entitlement society to an empowerment society," he told the crowd at Centennial Olympic Park. A YouTube video released in concert with his kick-off includes scenes of "tea party" rallies, with Cain saying "the sleeping giant, we the people, have awakened.

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain is denying allegations that he had been accused of sexual harassment when he was head of the National Restaurant Assn. The allegations were revealed Sunday night in a report by Politico . Cain had refused to comment on the charges when approached by Politico earlier in the day. Cain campaign spokesman J.D. Gordon told the Associated Press late Sunday night that the campaign denied the report. “Inside-the-Beltway media have begun to launch unsubstantiated personal attacks on Cain,” Gordon said in a written statement to the Associated Press.

The lawyer for one of the women who has accused Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain of inappropriate conduct in the 1990s said Thursday morning that he has drafted a statement on behalf of his client and is sending it to the National Restaurant Assn. for review in hopes it can be released publicly. The attorney, Joel Bennett, has said his client would like to tell her version of what happened with Cain, the former Godfather's Pizza CEO, in the 1990s, when the two worked together at the association, but a confidentiality agreement his client signed at the time prohibits her from proceeding.

Herman Cain seems to know who's to blame for long-buried sexual harassment allegations against him suddenly seeing the light of day: Rick Perry. Cain and his campaign have pointed the finger squarely at the Texas governor. In an interview with Forbes, Cain suggested that Curt Anderson, a GOP consultant who worked on Cain's 2004 U.S. Senate bid and who now works for Perry, leaked the information to the press. Cain said he briefed Anderson on one allegation of harassment stemming from his time as head of at the National Restaurant Association in the late 1990s.

In the latest attempt to gain ground against the nation's epidemic of obesity, the Food and Drug Administration proposed rules Friday that require restaurant and fast food chains to post the calorie content of standard items on their menus. But the rules, which would also apply to vending machines, coffee shops and convenience and grocery stores but not to movie theaters, bowling alleys and airliners, underscored the herculean challenge in helping Americans reduce their calorie intake: Despite decades of trying, the United States has made little or no progress against one of its biggest public health challenges.

Karcher Education Pledge: Carl Karcher Enterprises Inc., the parent company of the Carl's Jr. restaurant chain, has pledged $50,000 to an educational program operated by the National Restaurant Assn. The company will donate $10,000 a year over five years to an endowment fund that develops career training programs for managers. The association's Educational Foundation is trying to raise endowments to $10 million to support the programs.

[This post has been updated, as explained below.] The restaurant industry's opposition to a higher minimum wage is hardly a secret--it's one of the top issues on the lobbying agenda of the National Restaurant Assn., the chain restaurants' Washington trade group. The mystery is why the industry seemed so loath to reveal its role in a round-robin letter signed by more than 500 economists, including four Nobel laureates, calling the proposed minimum-wage hike to $10.10 an hour a "poorly targeted anti-poverty measure.

It's a time-honored strategy in politics: When bad news strikes, hit the airwaves, tell your story - and hope that it sticks and limits the damage. But for that strategy to work the story has to be consistent. Herman Cain was anything but in a series of interviews Monday, leaving some to wonder if another shoe in the burgeoning sexual harassment scandal is going to drop. Cain started the day by not talking about the subject at all during a forum at the American Enterprise Institute, saying he wanted to stick to the topic at hand, his "9-9-9" tax plan.